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The tiered seating of the Hopewell
Room depicts altitude advantage? |
A late night Circus heat allows
fliers to congregate for some chance encounters. |
Snoopy's Roof Needs Patching Again
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The 2008 Ace of Aces tournament had more than its share
of excitement, some of it even took place during the games. The
four scheduled Circuses allowed new players to enter and learn
to fly. One such quick learner was David Zande, who was
able to shoot down reigning champion George Deutsch during his
first session after learning the game. That's more than
most of us have accomplished the last three years! Quick to learn
and quick to play.
The late night Circuses were less populated this year, probably
due to competition with the ever-growing nightcap events, like
Can't Stop. Still, during the week, nearly 30 pilots
took off and found entertainment in battling with rotary engines.
The last Circus on Friday saw several of the regulars and
others flying an extended session to reach the requirement of
15 dogfights. This group included two of the three previous
champions, Bruce Young and George Deutsch (a two-time champ),
and other laurelists, including Grant LadDue and Chris Villeneuve.
With several needing additional dogfights, the Circus carried
over and the dogfights continued late into the night.
Prior to the Final on Saturday, a medical emergency knocked
the GM out of commission, causing him to miss the Final. This
required some scurrying to round up an emergency GM to track
down the paperwork and setup a Final. A big thank you to Rex
Lehman, our resident paramedic and to John Clarke for accompanying
me to the hospital. All was fine by that evening (albeit too
late for the AOA Final).
Nevertheless, George Deutsch, Grant Ladue, and Chris Villeneuve
appeared to contest the reconstituted Final. They and the
replacement GM decided to fly two games versus each other pilot,
best record wins.
Here is a description of the Final in the words of pilot Grant
LaDue:
"I started
out by shooting down Chris 6-0. As I recall it was
three quick point blank shots and it was over. Quickest
match of the tournament for me.
Next came
the epic duel! George and I faced off. I've never even
managed to threaten George, so I needed to pull something out
of the bag. As I recall, we exchanged a mid range shot
for 1-1, then I surprised him to go up 3-1. Eventually
we worked our way through a long duel to get at 5-4 with me up.
We came down to a position where I think you only have
two good choices to play. I chose one and George guessed
correctly and shot me down 6-5!!!! I'm pretty sure
that if I'd have chosen the other move, I would have gotten the
point blank shot on George to win. Sadly for me, the whole
tournament revolved around that decision.
George shot
down Chris (score unknown) to complete the first round. I
shot down Chris in our second match 8-6. We did a "page
20" to get to 6-6 and had to continue on to determine the
winner. This match took a while too. This locked
up at least 2nd place for me.
George then
beat me 6-3 in one of our more usual firefights to seal the win.We
gave George a t-shirt from the box that had been located, and
tossed in $10 to get a shirt for myself. I finished in
2nd place two years in a row, so I guess I can claim to be the
second best WBC Ace of Aces player. Sadly, no 2nd
place plaque is available!
Congratulations to George Deutsch for repeating as the Ace
of Aces champion. Additional thanks to Grant for providing
a review of the Final so that it could be placed in this report.
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2004 champ Bruce Young (left) gets
in a qualifying sortie at the Demo table as aces congregate outside
Paradise looking for duels. |
Three-time champ George Deutsch (left)
battles Chris Villeneuve (right) as Grant LaDue waits to pounce
in the round robin playoffs. |
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